Len Maley, longtime Nazareth faculty member and a loyal supporter of the Golden Flyers' athletic teams, died Friday, April 5 in Fairport, N.Y. He was 85.

Maley was a member of the Nazareth faculty for more than 40 years, serving as a professor of Business and Economics from 1967 - 2005. Born in Iowa in 1939, Maley was a devoted fan of Iowa Hawkeye sports teams as well as the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team and the Chicago Bears football team. 

Maley and his family moved to California when he was a teenager, and he went on to graduate from California Institute of Technology. He went on to earn master's degrees from the University of Cincinnati, Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester. He met his wife Jean in Rochester in the 1960s, and they were married for 48 years before her passing in 2014.

Maley's lifelong interest in sports led him to become Nazareth's first women's basketball coach in 1974, when Title IX was in its infancy and opportunities for women in athletics were limited. One of the players he coached was Doreen LaDonna, the program's first 1,000-point scorer and a Sports Hall of Fame inductee in 1996.

He returned as an assistant coach for three seasons for the women's basketball team at Nazareth from 2012 through 2014. 

In between coaching stints, he mentored hundreds of Nazareth student-athletes and was a fixture at Golden Flyer sporting events. His experience enabled him to become a valuable resource as a member of Nazareth's Sports Hall of Fame committee. 

"The thing that stands out most about Len is his devotion to the Nazareth student-athlete," said Nazareth Athletic Director Pete Bothner. "He was a tremendous resource and advocate for student-athletes and a tremendous supporter of the athletic department."

Maley is survived by his son David (Jessica) of Wimauma, Fla. Calling hours are Sunday, April 14 from 12 p.m.-2 p.m. at the Richard H. Keenan Funeral Home (Egypt location) in Fairport, N.Y.